Flora of the Southeastern United States

Yucca glauca Nuttall. Common name: Soapweed Yucca. Phenology: May-Jun. Habitat: Calcareous shale barrens, loess hill prairies, other prairies. Distribution: ND, MT, and AB south to IA, se. MO, c. OK, nw. TX, and s. NM. Yucca glauca has the most extensive distribution of any North American Yucca. Records from east of c. OK are misidentification of Y. arkansana.

ID notes: Inflorescences of Yucca glauca are primarily racemose, but some plants exhibit branched inflorescences, and varietal names have been given them. Yucca glauca and Y. arkansana are very similar. The leaves of Y. glauca are uniform in size, rigid, linear or linear-lanceolate, and up to 1.2 cm wide. In Y. arkansana, the young leaves immediately surrounding the peduncle are distinctly shorter than the outer leaves of the rosette, and mature leaves are generally somewhat flexible, lanceolate, and up to 2.5 cm wide. Clary (1997) provided DNA evidence that does not indicate as close a relationship as the morphological characters suggest. Reports of this species farther east in e. OK and AR are misidentifications of Yucca arkansana.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Synonymy ⓘ: = Ar, Can, FNA26, K4, Mo1, NS, Ok, POWO, S13; = Yucca angustifolia Pursh — Tx; = Yucca glauca Nutt. var. glauca — F; < Yucca glauca Nutt. — C; > Yucca glauca Nutt. var. glauca; > Yucca glauca Nutt. var. gurneyi McKelvey. Basionym: Yucca glauca Nutt. 1813

Links to other floras: = Yucca glauca - FNA26

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Heliophily ⓘ: 9